Kajeet (866-452-5338), a Sprint MVNO that specializes in "smart phones for kids" featuring parental controls and a phone (and child) finder app, has cut the price of data on its lowest cost plans.

Until now Kajeet has charged an insane $1/MB ($1024/GB) for data on its $4.99, 14.99 and $19.99 plans. With the latest change, data is now 4¢/MB ($41/GB). Kajeet adds a 10% transaction fee on all airtime purchases so the real price of data is actually 4.4¢/MB or $45 per gigabyte.

While $45 per GB may sound like a lot, it's actually pretty good for pay per use, as opposed to use it or lose it, data. The majority of MVNOs, including PagePlus, PTel, H2O and Ecomobile charge 10¢/MB for per use data. In fact the only operators I'm aware of with pay per use data rates lower than Kajeet's are Google's Project Fi at 1¢/MB, Republic Wireless at 1.5¢/MB, RingPlus and FreedomPop at 2¢/MB and TracFone smartphones and BYOP at 2.4¢ using the $50 2 GB card.

The new lower data price makes Kajeet worth a second look, particularly if you need the child friendly aspects of the service. In addition to a child geo-tracker. Kajeet offers a safe browsing web blocker and also gives parents the ability disable the child's phone while driving or during certain hours, block calls to or from specific numbers and set usage limits.

Kajeet uses the Sprint native network with no roaming. LTE data is available. Using your phone as a hotspot is allowed on 3G Android devices but, according to Kajeet, it doesn't work LTE capable phones. BYOSP (Bring Your Own Sprint Phone) is allowed subject to Sprint's complex and inconsistent rules on using Sprint phones on MVNOs.

49.99 for unlimated talk, text and 1gb. NO Thanks. I can get more with Cricket Wireless and Nobody cares about child safety stuff. There is so many apps you can download for free and does the same thing.

@Anon (12:52pm): Could you elaborate? What kind of helpful things can Kajeet parental controls do that third-party apps cannot? I am considering Kajeet for my pre-teen kid, but I am trying to see if it is good value.

If this is supposed to be a child friendly service. I don't understand what good a plan with only 10 minutes will be nor the 60 minute plan. Checking in on the kids alone will use up more then 60 minutes per month. For a kids phone voice minutes are far more important than data.

Ting is a niche carrier which is why they've survived so long despite higher prices or differences from standard general catch all unlimited plan mvnos. They were the first Sprint mvno to have byosd afaik and apparently many parents feel that the extra cost is worth the security they feel when their kids are using phones and in this day and age of phenomenon like sexting , it makes sense . They are just keeping up with the times. Kajeet also has an mvne arm connected to it, Arterra Mobility which services other Sprint mvnos besides itself including Eco mobile , a smaller Sprint mvno known for it's good customer service.

And the lack of lte is annoying on the hotspot thing but apparently Sprint has an ambivalent attitude towards its mvnos. It wants their business but doesn't want to allow them to offer stronger/cheaper /better plans/options then say Boost/Virgin or Sprint prepaid. Sprint's mvno's byosd or bring your own Sprint device program is lesser then any gsm or Verizon mvno which has lte but more then any Sprint prepaid division (Boost/Virgin/Sprint prepaid). And Dennis is right, Sprint's byod policy is byzantine, confusing and inconsistent, especially after they implemented a change adding financial eligibility checks to the traditional stolen/lost blacklist on esns/imeis. Messed things up real good with what should be good/fully paid off phones with no balance coming up as bad. Big mess happened in February and took Sprint months to do anything about it. Pushed at least three Sprint mvnos into adapting non Sprint arms, including Expo and Real Mobile.

That's Sprint's fault but is it ever news that they are a bunch of screw ups?